Latreia,
Latreia said:
Is it possible for an atheists, like you, to appreciate the beautiful art inspired by Christianity in music, painting, and architecture by masters?
Short answer: Yes
Long answer: There has only been one time when the origin of a painting, despite how aesthetically admirable it is and its enviable attention to detail, really upset me, and that was when I came across a portrait of Nazi soldier in full regalia. The ideas symbolized behind
that particular painting were so horrific that the painting could not be appreciated. But, as far as Christian works go, I dont get that impression at all, and in fact I'd go as far to say that much of the great artists and writers are deeply indebted to Christianity for inspiration.
Much of the great poetry by Milton, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shakespeare, and many great works including Moby Dick, Canterbury Tales, The Brothers Karamazov, Legends of Kind Arthur and the Holy Grail, stand alone as masterpieces, but you can appreciate the stories much more once you understand the biblical allusions contained in them.
And there is much artwork that can be appreciated. A single story from Genesis in which an Angel (or God) wrestles with Jacob in the form of a man has inspired great painters like Rembrandt, Doré, Gauguin, Delacroix, among others. And of course, the Last Supper has innumerable depictions, most famously by Di Vinci.
On Christian music, I find modern incarnations of "Christian Rap" and "Christian Rock" unlistenable (I blame overcommecialization and CMT), and I generally find hymns to be seasonal. But in general, the Jazz era of the 1950s owes so much to Christian tradition. I'm not so sure about Classical music as I'm too tone deaf to enjoy it (and there is a general consensus that you have to understand the lives of the composers, the time which they wrote, and who they were writing for in order to say that it is a genuinely good piece of music - I dont have any of that, so I withhold my opinion).
And finally, I find the architecture to be beautiful, I have several buildings in mind but I dont recall their names. I'm sure I dont need to know their names, but only to describe the very elaborate murals painted along the domed ceilings. And of course, who can
not appreciate the Christian-derived style called "Gothic" that gave rise to almond-shaped arches and elaborate stain-glass artwork of the most famous cathedrals (lots of pictures of famous Gothic cathedrals here:
http://www.beloit.edu/~arthist/historyofart/gothic/gothic.htm).
